Why Are My Cakes So Fat?

I have a problem with fat cakes. By fat, I mean, that the cake when iced extends past the cake board. If I am icing an 8" cake I use an 8" board, and so forth.What am I doing wrong? It makes it tough to stack my cakes because the cake wants to hang off the board and support plate between tiers.

Also, how do you make sure that when you torte a cake, fill it and then go to place the other half of the cake on top that they line up perfect? Mine tend to lean or hang over in some spots.

I'm not sure why they would be hanging over the cake board. have your tried cutting the cake down to fit the size of the boards? I know that would be a pain but that is really all I can think of you doing at this time.

It would be a big pain to cut the cake down. I thought about maybe buying the next size up cake board and cut it down to size. That way I can make the board whatever size I want.The best would be if I could just figure out why my cakes don't "shrink" enough.

The pans are truely straight. I just checked them all. The cakes do not stick to the sides of the pans. The shrink in like 1/8"-always. It doesn't matter if the cake is chocolate or yellow. It leaves me with such little space that I don't always have enough room for icing.

As far as the matching the proper sides when stacking, try putiing a smear of icing from top to bottom of the layer before you separate the torted layer. After filling, just match up the "smears"! Hope this helps.

I always just use a cake circle that's larger than my cake (i.e. 10 inch round for an 8 inch cake), and then trim the cake circle down to be the same size as the cake after I ice and cover the cake in fondant.

I wish they had 7,9,11 inch rounds at my Hobby Lobby but they don't so I use the 8,10, 12,and 14 inch ones. This works out great for me - however I do always need to have a border on it, but you could always trim down the cardboard before covering in fondant if you wanted to do a border-less cake.

Regarding your question about layering the cakes - I have the same problem most of the time. Some people use a cookie sheet to help guide the next layer onto the cake, and some use a cardboard round sprinkled with some powdered sugar. Maybe you could give one of those things a try...hope this helps you!

Maybe your cake recipe means your cakes do not shrink when you bake them perhaps? When I bake for instance an 8" cake the finished un-iced cake is usually a little smaller than my 8" cake circle. Then when I fill and frost the cake the finished results will be a little bigger than than the 8" cake circle so that the cardboard circle is completely hidden under the cake. So I guess I have a tiny bit of overhang, but not that much.

msmeg:I don't think my frosting is too think. Without the frosting, the cake is the same size as the board. It just doesn't shrink.

It mush be my recipe; I start with a cake mix and then go from there. I really don't want to change my recipe because my cakes are always moist and taste really good (if I may say so).

I will try the icing smear trick to line the layers back up. Thanks for that tip! And I will bump up the size cake board I use. There is a supply shop by my work that sells all kinds of board sizes. Perhaps they sell the odd size boards and then i won't have to mess with cutting the board much or at all. I guess I know where I am headed on my lunch break.

As to the OP: do you use bake-even strips? What do you use to coat your pans with? I use a homemade non-stick recipe, using equal parts shortening / oil / flour to coat my pans. Between that and the bake-even strips, I find that my cakes shrink at least a 1/4" around while baking.

Oh! I also use parchment paper to cover the bottoms of my pans. I'm convinced that also contributes to some shrinkage.

I also cut down my cake circles. For instance, if I bake an 8" round, it's overall after-baking measurement is 7 3/4". I then cut down a 10" circle to 8 1/4", and center my uniced cake on it. Then while I ice, I just follow the edge of cardboard to ensure uniform thickness of icing. Works like a charm.

Fat cakes are a blessing. Yes, if you watch professional bakers, they trim down their cake board. I always use a nine inch board on an eight inch cake. That way, I only end up having to trim about a quarter of an inch after the bc and fondant have gone on. I get my boards at a restaurant supply store as hobby stores only carry Wilton.

Are your cakes nice and fat in terms of depth as well? Hang onto that recipe then! You've got a good one!

I use baking strips every time (I swear by those things). For non stick spray I just you Pam. I haven't had any problems yet.

My cakes are also thick. I posted on another thread about the height of cakes. I needed taller than 4" supports but shorter than 6" and was wondering where to buy them. So, yes, I have nice thick cakes too.

I would like to know how Win cuts her cake board down AFTER she has puts on her BC and fondant? How do you do that without nicking the fondant or if it was BC without damaging it? I can't imagine doing that and how would you get it cut nice and round with clean edges on the cake circle.

As far as the matching the proper sides when stacking, try putiing a smear of icing from top to bottom of the layer before you separate the torted layer. After filling, just match up the "smears"! Hope this helps.